Posts Tagged ‘Sketching’

Here is the last stage of the leg muscles. I know I didn’t touch the foot much, I will do a study of the foot by itself. I decided that I will draw the entire skeleton figure as large as possible and add more details in the rendering with that project.

Once again, I followed along with Riven Phoenix on constructing the proportions with and 8 head tall figure; I studied from Rubins anatomy book for the actual organic shapes of the bones and muscles.

Below is a link to purchase or review David Rubins Figure Drawing book.

Don Bluth Animation Tutorials
So, you want to be an animator? Learn from an Animation Master, Don Bluth, through his animation tutorials which are jam-packed with phenomenal techniques and secrets. Get inspired with expert Tips that will instruct you how to design entertaining characters and show you how to develop fresh ideas quickly. These DVD tutorials are intended to expand your understanding of both Traditional and CG animation techniques. With these informative lessons, you too can have a successful career in the animation industry.
Don’s highly instructional animation dvd’s will motivate you to greater heights whether you’re a young student or a seasoned professional. All your animation technique questions will be answered in these awesome tutorials.

I found a new 2d sotware called Alchemy for drawing and painting. It’s packed with some great features. Thanks for the tip! (A.Sharp)

alchemy |’alkemē

Figurative: a process by which paradoxical results are achieved or incompatible elements combined with no obvious rational explanation

Alchemy is an open drawing project aimed at exploring how we can sketch, draw, and create on computers in new ways. Alchemy isn’t software for creating finished artwork, but rather a sketching environment that focuses on the absolute initial stage of the creation process. Experimental in nature, Alchemy lets you brainstorm visually to explore an expanded range of ideas and possibilities in a serendipitous way.

Interaction

The Alchemy drawing canvas has an intentionally reduced level of functionality. No undo, no selecting, and no editing. Interaction focuses instead on the output of a great number of good, bad, strange and beautiful shapes.

To take a good look at what Alchemy can (and can not) do, check out the Videos section.

The Alchemy Interface

Modules

Alchemy consists of a growing number of ‘modules’ that can be added or removed at will. Using a given module you can do things like:

Shout at the computer. Use your voice to control the width of a line or the form of a shape.

Draw ‘blind’. Turn off the canvas display and explore what shapes emerge from the ‘darkness’.

Create random shapes. Generate shapes that can be used as a starting point for characters, spaceships, or whatever shape you see in the ‘clouds’.

Mirror draw. Draw mirrored symmetrical forms in realtime.

Randomise. Mess up and distort shapes.

Global Features

Other global features place focus on the ‘process’ of drawing, letting you do things like:

Record a drawing ’session’. Automatically save the contents of the canvas to a page in a PDF file at set intervals.

Auto-clear the canvas. Start drawing on a clean slate at set intervals. Force yourself to start over fresh.

Switch the canvas. Automatically open your sketch in a more ‘conventional’ drawing application, either as a bitmap or vector file.

Avoid distraction. Alchemy has a very minimal interface, just a simple toolbar that dissapears magically, and a fullscreen mode to block everything else out.

In this great book by Burne Hogarth, Dynamic Light & Shade is a must for any illustrator, concept artist, animator, comic artist or anyone in the realm of creative art. One should highly consider adding this book to their collection. This book teaches you from extensive examples on how to render and invent light, for drawing and painting figures in compositions.

The book starts with very simple silhouettes of primitive objects- to dynamic figures. From there, it teaches you how to see and understand positive and negative space; learning to see your composition in minimal light, single light sources to a variety of many other types of lighting and rendering; indoor, out-door, etc.

Bottom line, if you’re an artist and want to make your work look 3 dimensional, then understanding light and shade, and being able to incorporate it into your illustrations and compositions are a must.

Majority of the figure study posts with Riven Phoenix have been from a technical approach; drawing with proportions.We’ll demonstrate drawing the figure in proportion; the difference will be from a loose, artistic, gestural approach to build up the figure.

After completing the entire training series I can give a more thorough review.

Riven Phoenix presents a unique way of thinking and breaking down the human body in your mind. He states clearly that this is a GENERAL approach(meaning generic) approach to drawing the figure. Inventive drawing(Phoenix) is different from drawing what you see(life drawing). Most of his lessons are only 7-15 minutes; so you’re not going to get a super dynamic demonstration but a general idea and general observational approach.. It has helped me a lot. I’m not a concept artist but have decided to explore and try to get into it now. I have some formal school training with live models and Illustration but I need to expand my knowledge of the figure. My biggest problem was always seeing the figure as a complex subject. I needed to find a different approach to figure drawing. Studying Phoenix’s approach, combining my studies from life drawing, and drawing what I see, is helping me bridge the gap. Now, I can make more sense out of what I’m drawing by adding an abstract (generic approach along with using a more consistent study tools of great anatomy books and life drawing).

Final thoughts: Riven Phoenix has a good niche for what he does to help certain types of artists. Depending on your level of understanding this series may or may not help you. It has definitely helped me and yes I would recommend it. The best way to learn is to go along with his tutorials but also reference back with a good anatomy book to sharpen and enhance your studies. His techniques are good for helping work out your characters and figures. You would use this for a solid understanding when creating and working out your characters; especially when you have to work quickly and meet deadlines. When you think about it, if your drawing out storyboards or character sheets for a company, you just need the general (basic) idea of anatomy to get your ideas flowing quickly. Anatomy for life drawing is just that; realistic, detailed and accurate drawings for anatomy only, not necessarily for commercial entertainment. A good contrast is myself and my best friend. I’m pretty descent with drawing portraits and likenesses from life and photos. My buddy is better with inventing out his head. He didn’t have patience with drawing from life; he’d rather look at a person for a while, and then go home and re-invent the image from his head and get a likeness. So it really depends on where you’re at as an artist and being open with other perspectives on learning to better yourself.

I give The Riven Phoenix Structure of Man DVD drawing course 5 stars. Also, don’t think that this is the only series that you need to study to achieve mastery. This is groundbreaking, but this is just the beginning. Practice, Persistence, Passion, Patience, Love, and an Open Mind will all play a part in achieving a mastery level of drawing the figure from your mind.

For more info on Riven Phoenix Structure of Man ( Drawing the human figure from your mind)check out his website: